Heart
by Pipe Fox
Summary: It's three days before Yamato's marriage to Sora, but a realization in the form of Mimi gives him second thoughts.


Disclaimer: I don't own digimon

Disclaimer: I don't own digimon!

It's not often that I come out with a story covering romantic drama, but…small miracles happen everyday. So, nothing left to say. Senior Year 2 should be out soon. Okay then, READ ON!

Heart

Married. 

The word rung in his head like silver bells. And not just 'married'. Married to the one woman in his life who was going to make him the happiest man alive. True, the order had seemed a tad unconventional to him; she had proposed that beautiful night under the stars in Tokyo. And now, being only three days away to that single event that takes one from the path of middleverse to life, his feelings towards this all were surreal. 

::knock:: Probably Sora, he thought with a teasing smile as he pried open the door. She glided into his arms like a fragrant breeze, all giggles and laughter. He laughed with her, gently, gazing affectionately into her soft red hair.

"Hi baby." She giggled out, letting her arms tighten around his back, snuggling her face against his wool-covered chest.

"Back at you, honey." Sora Takenouchi greeted him with a normal welcome peck and hugged him again.

"Can you believe it, Matt? Three days? Three days!" He smiled that teasing smile again and rubbed her nose with his.

"Yeah well…get going. We AGREED that the bride and groom would NOT see each other until AFTER the wedding. I'm not supposed to be looking at you right now."

"Then close you're eyes and get over it." He laughed shortly, and hugged her tighter.

"Alright, alright. I know I'm too cute to stay away but if you're mom finds out about this we're toast. So put an egg in your shoe and beat it." She rolled her eyes and pushed herself away.

"Haha. Very funny. Alright, you've convinced me. I'm leaving." 

"Yeah, good riddance." Sora kissed him lightly again before twirling out of the door with a wave and disappeared down the hallway. Yamato Ishida didn't waist anytime closing the door. 

Was he supposed to feel that uncomfortable when she kissed him? He supposed it was a normal thing; he'd always felt strange whenever he kissed any of his other girlfriends before Sora, so it must be normal. In any case, he yawned and flopped onto the couch he had previously been sitting on and gazed at the pictures on his table stand. One, of Tai and he after a concert, brought back a rush of thoughts. Taichi Yagami…he knew very well that he had strong feelings for Sora. But he'd taken it like a man. He'd given Sora up, to his knowledge anyway, fair and square to the one who'd stolen her heart. For a while, Matt had felt really bad; he even wondered how he could fall so deeply in love with his best friend's crush but…after a while, he realized that fate had to run its course. 

The second of Kari and TK reminded him of such things too. Ever since the proposal, Hikari Yagami had been a little distant as well. Even his little brother, whom he was quite sure was head over heels for Tai's little sister and vise versa, couldn't get a word out of her for a while. 

There was one picture of Jyou, Koushiro, Miyako, Ken, Iori and Daisuke that Hikari had taken in the digital world when Takeru was ill. Koushiro Izumi had taken more to himself since he and Sora had started dating, as Yama could recall. And Jyou, so busy with his work schedule and doctor apprenticeship hadn't been much of one to talk at all. And the last one was of Mimi.

Mimi Tachikawa had lost contact completely with everyone since after the proposal. Anytime anyone called the Tachikawa residence in New York, her parents would say she'd gone on vacation. After three months of the same thing he himself had just stopped calling. Surely, he thought, this single act of love couldn't tear the digidestined apart, could it? 

::knock:: Yamato rolled his eyes with a ginger smile and stood to answer the door. She just couldn't stay away, could she? He smiled wider and opened the door. His smile faded at the familiar face. 

"Hi Yamato." 

"Mimi-chan?" Delicate hands fingered back the light suede hood to reveal the beautiful features of Mimi Tachikawa. She looked well, if not a bit tired, he couldn't help but thinking while he stared at her, more surprised if anything.

After a moment of silence, her strangely shy honey eyes glanced downward.

"Can…can I come in?" Instantly blushing he nodded and pushed open the door, letting her walk into his neat studio apartment. She helped herself to the couch where he had been sitting before. And he, curious, leaned on the chair across from her. Again, after a period of silence, she spoke. Her eyes, almost melancholy, lifted at the corners slightly with her soft smile.

"It's been a while, hasn't it?"

"Yeah." Pulling off her coat she moved to put it on the coat hanger but Yamato was up first, took it from her hands, hung it up and leaned once more on the chair. She seemed troubled, he noticed.

"I'm sorry I haven't called. I haven't called anyone. Vacationing in Paris. We had a photo shoot and an international fashion show to broadcast. I didn't get the telegram that you and Sora were getting married until last week." With a simple nod he stared her down, searching to find the real reason why she was here of all places. Nervous, he noticed, as she played with her fingers when she was so. So, having no light way to put it, he spoke.

"Mimi, why are you here?" She looked up and blushed slightly before glancing down again.

"I heard so much about this lovey dovey business that I decided to check it out myself. Sora's my best friend, you know. I…I want to make sure she made the right choice." This made him frown. She was doing it again; the same thing that used to annoy him when they were kids in the digital world. Beating around the bush. Childish nostalgia. She need a reality check. 

"That she made the right choice or that I made the right choice?" He snapped sharply, crossing his arms. She looked up, those wide, innocent eyes flickering in the dim lights of his apartment. Those same eyes that could get him to do anything. Those same eyes he was having slight difficulties resisting that very second. But before she could speak he went on.

"Listen." His harsh whisper filled the room. "Whatever I said to you some eight years ago means nothing to me now. I love Sora." For a split second her eyes were hurt but the expression quickly hardened, Mimi Tachikawa being no push-over, and stood up, approaching with leering eyes until she was right in his face. 

"First of all, what happened eight years ago is something you're looming over, not me. Second, I came here for the exact reason I told you. Third, if you EVER talk to me like that again Yamato Ishida I swear you will live to regret it. Fourth, have a nice life. I'm not apart of it anymore. Goodbye." She stormed past him, making a quick grasp for her jacket. He grabbed her slim wrist before she could slip the article on. Her honey eyes were flickering with wild fire.

"Let me go before I sue you for sexual harassment." 

"I am NOT looming over what happened eight years ago." He stated, not so threateningly as before but just as stern. Still, the familiar dark glare glistened between brown and blue eyes like a clash of lightning. 

"Let me go-"

"You're not leaving until I get a straight answer."

"Let me-" 

"No. Tell me the truth-" She swung her fist and knocked him hard in the jaw. Matt, surprised, flattered but didn't loose his grip, immediately looking at her. Mimi wrestled her arm free and stalked towards the door, letting those azure eyes follow her.

"Look Mimi…I'm…I'm sorry. But will you just tell me? Please?" Her fingers had nearly reached the doorknob but they hesitated to that pleading voice they curled under her palm and she turned around. On her way back she lifted a nice picture of Sora's smiling face that was sitting on the dresser and held it towards him, telling him to hold it. Then she leaned slightly on the side of him while he observed the photograph. 

"Matt, what do you see when you look in those eyes?" He didn't answer, trying to concentrate, trying to remember. She glanced at the picture again, gingerly letting her fingers dance over the glass frame.

"And…what do you feel when you touch her hands?" Now he was doubly confused; why couldn't he answer these questions? 

"And…when you kiss, what comes to mind?" He had almost had an answer to that question. He glanced at her to see her looking at him. Their eyes met.

"What…what should I see," He started waveringly, never taking his eyes away from the honey iris' of his companion, "when I look into her eyes?" 

"Everything." She whispered. The gaze hadn't broken and now, blushing, she turned quickly and walked towards the door. 

Nothing mattered anymore. He walked up behind her, right as her hand was on the doorknob, gently encircling her wrist. Mimi spun around, frightened probably, looking at him with confused, innocent eyes. But Yamato wasn't staring at that. Her hands; he was marveling at her delicate hands as he held it up near her face and his, being very close now than he'd been since she'd been there. He slowly lifted her other hand and glanced at that one, gently separating the fingers and entwining them with his own, letting the warmth flow from one to the other. Gradually blinking, pressing her hands against the door near her face, he glanced down at her, those blue eyes wider than she'd ever seen them, innocent, confused. 

"Matt-" She quivered out before he shushed her shaky breath, gently calming the shivers with his blue eyes. And then, in slow motion it seemed, he tilted his head one way, then the other, leaned down towards her, hesitated slightly with dropped eyelids, before touching his lips with her own. The shivering stopped; it was an epiphany and an enigma at the same time. The perfect combination of beauty and treachery; pain and pleasure; love and hate. Each second was a cloud burst and a ray of sun; he felt her give in slightly, her fingers relaxed, she leaned into his touch. 

Ten seconds of euphoria and he pulled away, still very close, the blue in his eyes slightly peering out, staring into her peeking brown eyes. 

"Blind…" He whispered in her ear very gently, "I was blind…" 

He gently loosened her hands; they dropped to her sides before he stepped away from her, one hand gently caressing her check, the other winding around her waist. It was like a magnetic force, between the two of them, just letting him hold her, feeling what might have been, knowing it would never come true until years and years to come.

"Matt, I came to say…goodbye." 

"What?"

"I'm going back to Europe. You won't hear from me again, I swear. I just…I don't want to cause any problems. I want you to be happy." He stared at her, piercing her skin. This wasn't the way it was supposed to go. 

"You're going to leave me right now? Right after I've found you?" She gave a melancholy nod.

"Sora's wonderful; she's going to be a better mother to your kids than I'd ever be. And you love her. Your life is going to be awesome. Please Matt, tell me you understand. Please tell me you understand why I'm leaving." His gaze dropped to the ground, his arms let her free, he stepped back and nodded.

"I understand." She reached into her jacket pocket and handed him a little CD case with a shiny disk inside.

"I want you to listen to this after I go. Matt, I…forget it, it's all on the CD." She leaned forward and resided in his embrace quickly, kissed his cheek and turned towards the door.

"Promise me you won't let anyone listen to that other than you for as long as we both live?"

"I promise." She nodded, gave a gentle smile and turned the doorknob.

"Okay then. Until we meet again."

"Until." He whispered, watching her turn out the door and letting it shut softly behind her. 

Yamato, twenty-three, stared at the disk while walking to the CD player and popped it in. And while he listened, a single tear slipped down his cheek.

Twenty Years Later…

The funeral had been a very sad one. And now, with two of the original digidestined gone, Sora Takenouchi Ishida and Taichi Yagami stared at the shiny disk that Yamato had given his wife on his death bed. 

"He was so young…he didn't deserve it." She whispered, eyes hollow, turning the CD in the light. "First Mimi…now him…"

"I never would have thought that he had lung cancer. All those years of Mr. Ishida smoking…we should have known. His father died the same way. Poor Takeru…they think he has it too." Sora turned the disk in the light again; Taichi pried it from her shaky hands and stared at it.

"So…do you want to listen to it?" She gave a small nod. Tai placed the disk inside the CD player and hit play. Mimi's voice filled the room. 

"Hi Yamato…chances are if you're listening to this right now, then I've already told you I'm leaving. I made this CD for you so I could always be with you in a way, I guess. It seems like a long time since that one day eight years ago; you were fifteen, remember? And you told me that…that you loved me but I told you that I needed time to decide. I remember; I don't even know why I said that but…I guess it all turned out for the better. I heard you're getting married to Sora. Please don't worry; it's a decision you won't ever live to regret. She's going to be a beautiful mother to your children. Um…gosh, there's not much left for me to say. I want you to know that you'll always be my heart and there won't be a second that I won't remember that. Oh, I…I recorded this song for you. I've been singing out here, in Paris…I want you to hear it." 

Tai glanced at Sora; she looked completely neutral, no tears no shivering. She simply sat completely still, listening to the opening chords of the music. 

"Heart…I know I've been hard on you…I'm sorry, for the things I've put you through…"

__

Before…you start and break on me

Or ask for sympathy

I need to make you see

Oh heart, I'm not sure it's been long enough

To say, that what I feel is really love

There is just one way to learn

Sometimes we'll get burned

And right now it's our turn

__

Give it time

Help me through

Heart we can do this together

You're my strength

You're my soul

I need you now more than ever

Heart, all the hurt will soon be gone

If you'll, if you'll just keep on being strong

You will always be my friend

So keep wanting and then

We'll find love again

Give it time

Help me through

Heart we can do this together

You're my strength

You're my soul

I need you now more than ever

Heart, I know I've been hard on you

I'm sorry for the things I've put you through

Please, don't you break on me

I need to make you see

It wasn't meant to be

  
Cause you, will always be my friend

So keep wanting and then  
And we'll find love again

Tai glanced at Sora with concerned eyes but she was simply glancing down, pensive, trying to put her words in the right order. He came and sat down next to her, letting his hand rest on hers. The last strains of music died down softly; they could hear Mimi pressing her hand against her lips and blowing a kiss against a background of heartbeats.

"I love you, Matt." She whispered. The CD came to a stop. 

"Sora…" Taichi trailed off sympathetically, patting her shoulder gently. She closed her eyes, trying to fight something it seemed, but spoke clearly, though gently.

"I knew…I always knew that he loved her but…I didn't understand until now. But I understand. And I'm not mad."

"Sora…"

"But, my only regret is that…is that I can't talk to him, face to face," she choked slightly but didn't spill a tear, "right now and tell him that…I just wanted him to be happy too." His gentle eyes softened; he slipped an arm around her and let her cry on his shoulder, and nudged the tears away with the side of his face.

__

Cause you, will always be my friend

So keep wanting and then  
And we'll find love again

::thump thump::

::thump thump::

The End

Yeah, I know. It sucks. But what can you do? So please try to keep the flames at a minimal. That song is called 'Heart' by Britney Spears. So, Comments? Flames? Schemes for covering the world's leading rice producers in gravy? Send um' all to me at [Artetiegr@hotmail.com][1] or just review! Thanks!

   [1]: mailto:Artetiegr@hotmail.com



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